Jeremy Newton guides students to the top of their game…and Hawaii

The prominent role of posters in the scientific community
isn’t understood by non-scientists, but their importance can’t
be understated, and they are a must-do for any undergraduate
student pursuing a career in the sciences and social sciences.

These exhibits are a common element at conferences of
scientific researchers, whether they are professionals,
academics or students. The simple displays provide a visual
summary of a researcher’s project and include brief information
about his or her objectives, methods and results, along with any
conclusions reached and recommendations for further study.

Why posters?

Posters generate interest, give colleagues a quick snapshot
of what you’ve been working on and often ignite dialogue. They
have the advantage of quickly communicating specific information
about a topic to experts and other individuals in the field.
Students have an opportunity to promote their own ideas to
potential colleagues and co-workers within their discipline in a
way that is not typically accessible to an undergraduate
student. It may be that first step towards a dynamic
collaboration in the field.

“If an undergraduate student is creating a scientific poster
and it’s used as part of a research exhibit at a conference,
that student is at the top of his or her game,” says Jeremy
Newton, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Saint
Martin’s.

Newton and two Saint Martin’s students, Timothy Templin and
Katrina Tuengel, recently presented scientific posters for the
Western Psychology Association Convention in Reno, Nev. The
students’ posters were based on their senior thesis projects.

The group also attended the American Psychological
Association Convention in Hawaii this summer, where they
presented a collaborative poster, “Holistic versus analytical
attention: Impact of common environmental stimuli.” The project
was part of their continuing research in experimental
psychology. Their research studies individual differences in how
people of different cultures remember scenes from their
environment. Templin and Tuengel are among several Saint
Martin’s students who attended and contributed poster
presentations there.

“When students are sitting in a classroom, they don’t have
much of a chance to engage in interactions with people they
might be working with in the future,” Newton says. “But by
participating in these types of events and activities, they
receive great opportunities to interact with potential advisors
and, if they are moving toward research work, potential
collaborators.”

On another front, Newton and former undergraduate exchange
student Ling-Jun Liu were co-authors of a poster presentation,
“Working Memory Capacity as a Moderator in the Processing of
Intrusion.” The presentation represents research she started in
a class taught by Newton at Saint Martin’s. Liu came to Saint
Martin’s from Chung Shan Medical University, a sister university
of Saint Martin’s in Taiwan. Liu recently received a master’s
degree from Chung Shan Medical University.

Newton, who earned his doctorate in psychology from the
University of California, has an expertise in cognitive
psychology and studies such areas as eyewitness memory, trauma,
interrogation and false confession. He has recently co-authored
a research article in the journal
Memory and Cognition. His interests also include the ways in
which psychology interfaces with law, the history of psychology
and diversity issues among psychologists, students and
academics.

Among his professional interests are psychological topics of
law, such as eyewitness testimony and false confession. You can
follow Newton on Twitter (@NewtPsyc).